Israel strikes south city as invasion looms

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes targeted the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, hours after Israel’s prime minister said he had asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people there ahead of a ground invasion.

Israel says that Rafah, which borders Egypt, is the last remaining stronghold for the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza after more than four months of war sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said any Israeli ground offensive on Rafah would have “disastrous consequences,” and asserted that Israel aims to eventually force the Palestinians out of their land.

In Khan Younis, Israeli forces opened fire at Nasser Hospital, the area’s largest. The Israeli military said troops were not currently operating inside the hospital and called the surrounding area “an active combat zone.”

Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, said more than 2,000 Hamas terrorists in Khan Younis had been killed in airstrikes and ground combat but the offensive in the city was far from over.

Meanwhile, an Israeli drone struck a car near Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding two others, security officials said.

The drone strike near the coastal town of Jadra took place about 37 miles from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since violence erupted along the Lebanon-israel border on Oct. 8.

An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the target of the strike in Sidon was Hamas official Basel Saleh, who was “injured to an unknown extent.” The official said Saleh was responsible for enlistment of new Hamas recruits in Gaza and the West Bank.